An Alphabetical Anthology
by Kimiko93
Summary: 'D': Because after being kidnapped and rescued, she still wasn't one of these contagious distressed damsels and still had some dignity to defend, dammit! MinatoxKushina
1. A' is for 'Avenger'

_My more or less first try on writing something like an anthology. Generally centered around the recent events in the manga, so spoilers ahead; pairings, characters, genres and ratings may vary._

_Please excuse my rocky English. Me no native speaker._

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**A is for 'Avenger'**

**Characters: Uchiha Sasuke**

**Rating: K+ **

**Pairngs: None**

**Disclaimer: No owning or profit intended**

It was in one of these brief moments of clarity that Uchiha Sasuke happened to ask himself what the hell he was doing.

Seriously, after everything that had happened recently, his mind kinda lost track.

He had killed his brother and avenged his clan. And turned out to be wrong about that.

He had pledged allegiance to Uchiha Madara, his now only living relative, although he didn't quite understand how exactly someone older than the village of Konoha could still be alive.

He had sworn to destroy his former home village because it was to blame for his clan's death. Although technically, only a group of old people was to blame, Danzou and the two former teammates of the third Hokage. But trying to get all of those without fighting one's way trough the whole village, fat chance. So he might as well just kill them all.

Then he had try to capture the Hachibi to help Madara with his plan he also didn't quite understand, but oh well.

Turned out the guy had survived and escaped and killed Kisame, his brother's former partner. Or so he heard.

_Then _he tried to fight Danzou at some Kage Meeting, where he first had to fight the Raikage, then Gaara, the new and probably youngest Kazekage ever, almost died several times but escaped nonetheless to chase Danzou.

And _then_ he had killed Danzou and almost killed Karin in the process, but well, the end justified the means, right?

Right.

Immediately after that, Sakura, _Haruno Sakura_ had appeared right before him and claimed she had deserted Konoha and wanted to join him. Fat chance.

And then, the very same Haruno Sakura who had been all over him years ago and had still frozen and stared at him the last time they'd met, tried to _kill him_.

She didn't succeed, of course, she still was Haruno Sakura after all and therefore had to be rescued before he could kill her. Purely in self-defense, he might have to add.

And finally, Naruto showed up. But much to Sasuke's surprise, Naruto had held his speech about friendship considerably short. And even said he'd kill him sooner or later and vice versa.

That had been the most understandable conversation he'd had in a while.

So now here he lay, his brother's eyes freshly implanted to keep him from going blind, pondering about what exactly it was he was doing. Why was he helping Madara again? Why had he believed every single word from man who should have died of old age like, three times by now?

Oh, right. Because it was easy.

And plainly, he had nothing better to do, anyway.


	2. B' is for 'BFF'

**B is for 'BFF' **

**Characters: Haruno Sakura & Karin**

**Rating:**

**Pairings: None**

**Disclaimer: Me still not owning**

It was odd, Sakura decided.

She was in the hospital, the place she liked to be when she was needed nowhere else. At least here she was able to do some good, if she wasn't pondering about being useless all the time.

Currently she was examining her most and least favorite patient, a certain red-haired girl whose life she had recently saved. Quite a curious case, actually.

Naruto would have been all in for befriending her immediately, hadn't he been shipped off to some island just to be, well, shipped off and far, far away from action.

Kakashi had announced his concerns about whether or not Sakura should be the one treating the girl, regarding both of their… 'Histories'.

Sai had simply asked if this wouldn't be sort of awkward for her. Or at the very least, odd.

Sakura herself had no come to the thrilling conclusion that it was indeed odd.

"Your wounds are healing up quickly." She informed Karin, who sat passively in her bed while Sakura was rearranging her bandages. "You're gonna be out of here in no time."

"Thanks." Karin replied in a monotone.

Awkward silence ensued. Again.

"So…" Sakura tried to start another conversation as she had finished her job. "Do you have any plans for the future?"

Karin gave her a humorous stare.

"I'm a nuke-nin who used to work in Orochimaru's laboratories before she went on a mission to destroy this village with the second most wanted man on the planet, so yeah. I've got a bright future ahead of me."

Sakura smiled sympathetically.

"Oh, don't pity me!" Karin demanded. "I've brought this on myself, okay?"

"I wasn't going to." Sakura said. "But, well… Our Hokage isn't prejudiced, so to speak. And we could use a sensor like you. We just lost one of our best, you know?"

"Yeah. I've kinda been there, actually." Karin responded. "And of course, the people around here will welcome me with open arms, sure."

"Well…" Sakura stuttered. "You may have a… Troubled past, but… I think being stabbed in the stomach kinda keeps one from returning, doesn't it?"

Karin sighed deeply, lay down again and turned her back on Sakura.

"Just leave, okay?"

"I didn't mean to… Well, hurt you or something!" Sakura tried to explain. "It's just that… You… Seem capable, otherwise he… Wouldn't have chosen you. And I just think that you shouldn't let it… Well, _him_, ruin your life, okay?" She also sighed. "I'm sorry. I should just go, you're right…"

She turned around and walked towards the door. She was just about to open it when Karin spoke again.

"I don't even have a place to stay."

"I'm sorry?" Sakura asked startled.

"I have no house and no money for an apartment or anything." Karin said, her back still turned.

"Well…" Sakura mused. "Whatever could we do about that?"

And while being with her sure was odd, at least Karin was a person capable of pulling her act together, she thought to herself. And maybe she could come to like that, for a change.


	3. C' is for 'Courage'

**C is for Courage **

**Characters: Hyuuga Hinata****  
Rating: K+****  
Pairings: Minor NaruHina  
Disclaimer: I don't even like her that much, why would I own her?**

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When she was younger, Hyuuga Hinata had thought she could do anything if she just was brave enough.

It had worked just fine, actually; She managed to get through the academy (which was hard for her not due to lack of ability but rather because she didn't really think she had the personality to be a ninja at all; but then again, who had?), she managed to get through the first two rounds of her very first chuunin exams (although most of the credit was due to her teammates), she managed to stand up to her cousin when she should have been dying (or so she had been told).

Later in her life, it sort of went on that way; she still was able to do everything she really wanted, as in becoming a chuunin for example, but still…

It had always taken most of her courage to talk to Naruto. And still, until now, _she always had managed to do it anyway_.

But now she was some kind of war heroine. And even seeing Naruto was unbearable.

She still didn't quite know how exactly she had been able to pull this off; saving Naruto's life, trying to fight Pain and _confessing her love to Naruto in the process._ And _surviving _all of it, one might want to add.

This hadn't gone by unnoticed; her father had never been more proud (because, duh, she was a war heroine and the details were kind of unknown by the general public), people started cheering whenever she walked by (which was oh-so embarrassing that she avoided streets in general by now) and she even had gotten a speech from Neji on the difference between being brave und suicidal.

And part of her had loved any minute of this.

But there was still the issue of Naruto. He hadn't acknowledged her confession in any way. Sure, he had been kinda dying when she did it, but afterwards…

She had at least expected him to turn her down politely or anything, but _no_…

Then again, he almost immediately had been off to assumingly save the world, the village, Sasuke, or a combination of the three, only to be shipped off to some island once he returned.

(Of course she could have visited him in between, to at least get some closure and be done with him, but no. She had thought about it, sure, but ironically couldn't muster the courage to go through with it. One step forward, two steps back, really.)

But regarding the fact the she was convinced of being unable to even look at him by now…

Maybe this wasn't so bad after all.


	4. D is for 'Damsel'

**D is for 'Damsel'**

_Because damn, Kushina shouldn't be one_

**Characters: Uzumaki Kushina & Namikaze Minato  
Rating: K+  
Pairing: Well, duh  
Disclaimer: If I owned her, she WOULDN'T be one**

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Uzumaki Kushina was, for the lack of a better word, annoyed. Heavily annoyed.

So, alright, she had been kidnapped. That she could accept. One wasn't gifted with awesome chakras and incredible beauty to go by unnoticed by enemies, right?

And she couldn't free herself. That was unfortunate enough, but still, she was about half as old and experienced as her kidnappers, so yeah, she could forgive the universe for that.

She wasn't even sorry for having to rip out all that hair, for it still showed she was way more awesome than her kidnappers for thinking of this, and she never liked her hair anyways, although some bread or stones would have hurt a lot yes. But she wasn't going to whine about that.

So what was really _pissing her of_ was that, after all this being kidnapped and rescued by some freak who apparently thought of himself as some freaking knight in shining armor who could just waltz right in, sway her off her feet, waltz away into the sunset to put her back behind her white picket fence, she still had some freaking dignity to defend. She was not one of those apparently contagious distressed damsels all of her friends had turned out to be once puberty hit, dammit!

"You can stop carrying me now." She muttered while glaring at her savior, who had been smiling like the idiot he was ever since he'd saved her. "I can walk on my own."

"I know" The idiot responded, still smiling. "But I'm faster."

"You…!" Kushina growled and tried to hit him, which proofed to be quite hard while being carried bridal style at something that felt like light speed. "Let go off me! Now!"

"Nope." Was the prompt answer. "I want to get home eventually, 'kay?"

"Listen!" She cried out, exasperated. "Only because you rescued me once, doesn't mean I need you or anybody else, okay? I can walk on my own, I can carry my own weight, I'm a big girl and can find the way home on my own, I can take care of myself, defend myself if necessary, I DO NOT need to be rescued, usually, and I'm NOT A DAMSEL! So don't get any wrong ideas, got it?"

That at least kept him from grinning. For a few seconds.

"I know." He said then. "But I'm still faster."

She sighed deeply and finally gave up.

"So…" She tried to start a more civil conversation. "How the hell did you get to be the only one rescuing me, anyway?"

Minato shrugged.

"Well, I guess I was the only one to notice your hair." He explained. "A shame you had to pull out so much, though. It's so pretty."

And now, Uzumaki Kushina was, for the lack of a better word, flabbergasted.

Oh, dammit…


	5. E is for 'Eloquence'

**E is for ****Eloquence **

**Characters: Sasuke Uchiha & Sakura Haruno**

**Rating: K+**

**Pairings: well…**

**Disclaimer: Yeah, I totally own them. That's why I have to write fanfiction about them. Sure. **

**Summary: After yet another near-death experience, Sasuke reconsiders his priorities. **

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Sometimes the universe probably really, really hated him, Sasuke Uchiha mused.

There he was, lying beat and broken in the dust of an almost deserted battlefield where he should have died, too.

He had done everything he ever wanted; he'd defeated his brother (which was a mistake), killed Danzou (the two other old people would die soon enough; either because they were old and spiteful or because the current Hokage and those to come would eventually lead them to suicide), gotten rid of Madara (who'd twisted the truth, naturally, and would have gone down even without Sasuke's help, who simply wasn't meant for the heroic kills) and even had his rematch with Naruto (a draw, satisfyingly enough).

And now he was supposed to die here. He wanted to die here, damn it. He'd done everything right, he'd seen the dark tunnel, the light at the end, the flashes of his past life, felt the life draining out of him with his blood, felt his heart pumping out every last drop of it.

Hell, he was even as far as admitting that yes, it could have gone better, he would have rather stayed in Konoha and never get involved with all this and that yes, ignorance and incompetence sometimes really were a bliss, and yes, going after his brother would have been a lot easier if he just had stayed and waited for him to come and get Naruto, and yes, Naruto was stronger than him, not in a fighting power kind of way, but in any other way, and yes, he would rather have spent his life being his friendly rival instead of who he eventually did as more lives could have been saved and so on and so forth.

He would have been happy to die with these conclusions.

He wasn't quite ready to live with them.

Finding out that any and all choices you've made within seventeen years were absolutely wrong and had disastrous consequences for you and everyone around you, well. At least he was dying when he did.

But no. The universe hated him.

So he was back in this black tunnel, the light disappeared, until he was pretty sure all he saw was the back of his eyelids. His heart was still pumping, damn, but the blood stayed in his body.

Wait, now he did see the light again. But wasn't that supposed to be white instead of, like, _green_?

He opened his eyes.

More green. Green light. Green clothes. Green eyes… Hold on a second.

Green light meant healing. Yeah, that made sense.

Green clothes meant Medic-Nins, or at least during this war it had. Still nothing spectacular.

Green eyes were unusual. Out of all the people he knew, very few of them had green eyes, and only two this exact shade of green. And one of them had no pupils and wore rather heavy make-up slash bags under the eyes due to lack of sleep.

This was not the case here.

"Sakura?" He breathed, his voice raw and husky. Probably something had been broken in his throat.

"Shush, I'm not done yet." She responded, still focused on his wounds with skill and professionalism he didn't quite remember her having.

"Here to finish me off?" He asked her, ignoring her instructions. She made an exasperated noise but kept her mind on the task.

Sasuke let her work in silence for a while, more questions arising each second. Then he decided, well, what was left he could lose by asking them?

"You don't want to kill me anymore?"

"Alliances change. So do motivations. And I'm especially fickle."

"You're a medic?"

"Apparently."

"You saved me."

"Stop making me regret it."

That actually made him shut up for a second. So not only was she a medic now, but _feisty_, too?

"Did you save Naruto, too?" He asked after another minute of silence.

"He didn't need it." Ouch. That hurt.

"How so? It was a draw."

"He regenerates even faster nowadays. You just seem to fall apart."

"Why did you save me?"

She gave another exasperated groan.

"You helped taking down the world's biggest threat, okay? That makes one think you might be useful, or something."

"Yes, but why _you_? You're hardly the only medic left alive, right?"

"Well, once upon a time we originated from the same village…"

"So now you're the only capable medic of Konoha. Congratulations."

"Could you just shut up?"

The green light had vanished. Now she was staring at him angrily, and he couldn't help but notice her blush.

He also couldn't help but notice he was enjoying this new, feisty, flustered Sakura. Who now started ranting.

"Seriously! When did you become so talkative, anyway?"

He shrugged as much as he was able to.

"I don't know. I sort of died several times over. Makes you reconsider things."

"Whatever!" She exclaimed. "I liked you a lot more when you would just grunt instead of talk and then continue to brood in silence or something!"

"Why?" He asked, tying to rise to his elbows and giving her what he had experienced to be the smirk that made female heads turn everywhere. That actually made her back off a little. "Am I making you uncomfortable?"

"I… You… You… You are exasperating!" She exclaimed, her face now a shade of red horribly disharmonizing with her hair. He cocked his head.

"How very eloquent."

And when she gave him an angry roar, previously saved for Naruto, and her fist connected with his face, knocking him out again, he went down with a smirk.

Totally worth it.


End file.
